Being 21

Remember when you were a kid and you thought Sweet 16 was so far away? I mean, heck, Sleeping Beauty, Ariel, and Snow White were married at 16!

And then you turned 16 and you realized that you didn't know anything and what the heck were those girls thinking, getting married at 16?!

You just got your driver's licence!

You thought 18 was the thing. You could tackle anything when you were 18.

Until you turned 18.
Then you realized you totally do not have a handle on much at all.
The next milestone is 21.
21.
Where you can literally - and legally - do anything you want.
Within reason, obviously.
Well, let me tell you, Girls-younger-than-21, 21 is not what it's cracked up to be.
Yeah, you can basically do whatever you want . . . but with that said, there's a lot of responsibility on your shoulders.
I know a lot of gals my age - including myself - that would just love nothing more than to curl up with a tub of ice cream or and popcorn and watch Disney Princess movies all day.
And maybe a little a lot of Doctor Who.
But we can't.
We've got college.
We've got jobs.
We've got bills to pay, assignments due, and people counting on us to get things done.
That's not to say that we don't have moments of calm or just time to have fun and relax, but those moments don't come often.
Girls-younger-than-21, treasure your moments of freedom.
You might be bored, but another word for boredom is free.
And treasure the innocence.
And the simplicity.
Enjoy it while you can.
It's not going to last.

Christmas Shenanigans

You know what's really weird?

Me and my mom have quite different tastes.

Example: many, many moons ago, my uncle gave me the EXTENDED edition of Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers for Christmas. I began to watch it as soon as I could, and my mom fell asleep on the couch next to me. She woke up during a scene with the Ents (which she now loves because they "help the short guys") and said, "What is that?"

I told her they were Ents.

Now, my mom has been in the medical field for a while, so she was probably like "ear nose and throat . . . ???"

She looked at the screen, looked at me, and back at the screen.

"I'm going back to sleep."

Now, that isn't to say we don't have anything in common, and this proves it. 

For Christmas I decided to get my mom two movies she liked when we were kids but hadn't seen in a long time, probably coinciding with the VHS to DVD transition. 

I bought her Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Now, just take a wild guess as to what was in my stocking . . . ?

Yep.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Whoever said great minds think alike was right.

And here's my favorite part of Mary Poppins (because everyone loves this part, and if you don't, go get your head checked now before healthcare prices shoot up):

And from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, because I don't think it's nearly as popular as it should be:

Growing Up Too Fast

Something happened the other day that really made me think. I'll get to what happened later on, so bear with me: what does "growing up too fast" really mean?

(And bear with me; it took me over a week to write this, and some parts really still don't feel quite right, but I'm posting it anyways.)

"Growing up too fast" used to mean that a child had to shoulder responsibilities and had to entertain concepts that would force them to leave childish things behind before most would have them do that. For instance, in the past, children were working full time around the age of fifteen, either because their parents had died, they were needed to help support the family, or they were considered old enough to take on that responsibility. Advancements in namely medical science and technology of all flavors enabled children to have more of an actual childhood.

But what did that bring?

For the purpose of this . . . "article", it brought free time.

Children were able to stay children until they were physically, mentally, and emotionally ready to take on the responsibilities of an adult. They could grow into it gradually, they could be trained, they could be taught, they could consider ideas and grasp the weight of the consequences to every action . . . they could be ready for an adult life.

Then there was too much free time.

Ungratefulness.

Envy.

Always wanting what was just beyond their grasp.

What do we have now?

We have children growing up too fast, but not in the way of the generations before them.

They have too much free time and a care-free (and care-less) attitude.

And although I can't quite put my finger on it, that's what's driving kids today to act the way they do.

What do I mean by that?

Whilst shopping with my mom and my sister, I saw this girl in Rue 21. Don't get me wrong - I love that store. It's one of the few places I actually enjoy clothes shopping. This really doesn't have anything to do with the store really. That's just where I was. But this girl . . . she had to have been younger than my sister, so maybe fourteen years old. But she looked like a . . . well . . . like a prostitute. I'm sorry to say it, but it's true. Her clothes, the way she wore them, the way her makeup was done - and for the record, I have a personal thing about girls that young wearing makeup - the way her hair was done . . . that's what she looked like. If she was on the street at night, I would have thought she was one.

But I remember looking at her and thinking, "Wow. She's grown up too fast."

Then it hit me: society tries to keep us busy, entertained . . . it tries to keep us children.

But in spite of that, we grow up. . . And not always in the best way.

So yeah. I just felt like I should post that.

I mean, innocence is an awesome thing.

Not naivete, that's not necessarily the same thing.

But innocence, purity . . . That's a lost treasure in this society.

An AWESOME New Blog!

So, my friend Jennifer has started a new blog . . . and it is awesome.
Be a love and check it out? I'm sure you'll be blessed by it!

Hi! I'm Jennifer and I blog over at Blessings All Mind With Ten Thousand Beside. I just got started this week, so I'm a beginner at this whole blogger thing. I'm excited though. My blog is going to be about me, my family, our life and the things that God is teaching me. I am also planning to answer some of the questions that teenage girls ask me! You can find out more by visiting the blog and reading the About Me page and the About the Blog page. So head on over and check it out! Or if you have a question you can email me at: betterthatway@gmail.com.

Winsomeness

Even though I've missed two straight weeks of Mrs. Audrey and Mrs. Claudia's Sunday School class, I've been thinking about something they stress a lot: being winsome.

I bought one of those cheap plastic pencil cases at Wal-Mart the other day (thank God for after school sales!) for the purpose of holding makeup and other goodies.

I wanted it to be unique (and not just cheap), so I wrote out 1 Timothy 2:9-10 on an index card in my best writing in pink. Here's the translation I used (ESV) courtesy of studylight.org:

     "9 Likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, 10 but with what is proper for women who profess godliness - with good works."

I <3 this verse.

The concepts of being "respectable", "modest", having "self-control", and being "proper" seem lost in today's society. I'm not saying I'm never guilty of not being any of these, but I do strive to be these things. It's not mainstream. It's not popular. But, hey - Jesus wasn't mainstream or popular. 

I honestly can't remember what prompted me to write this . . . I think it was the fact I'd written it for my makeup box along with the fact that I had just finished an 'argumentative close-reading' of a section of Hamlet.

I don't know.

Heck, we're all lucky I remembered this draft!

So, yes, this is what I've been working on all week.

^-^

Anyhooz, back to the WINSOMENESS . . . 

Mrs. Audrey loves the word "winsome". She says that word is lost, and rather old-fashioned sounding (she's right; it is, but I'm an English major; I love old words).

She says that we ought to be "winsome" to "win some".

I <3 that concept.

XD

Also, you can read her blog HERE. It's pretty much an epic win.